1. Overview

This walkthrough shows you how to use scorecards in Dundas BI to create a customized table, with complete control over layout and support for any visualization in its rows. This example displays a row for each product with a different visualization used for each measure.

A scorecard in Dundas BI is another type of 'view' and is similar to a report. While both scorecards and reports are based on the idea of customizing the layout and contents of each row and repeating that design for different data, reports support paginating into PDFs or printing, while scorecards are focused on the design of a table. Editing a scorecard is simpler, with fewer headers and footers.

You can view a scorecard by itself, or add it to a dashboard just like you would with a table visualization.

Tip

Table visualization columns can display data bars, bullet graphs and state indicators, and can be used instead of the scorecard editor if it supports the type of scorecard you want to create.

3.2. Add a row grouping

Drag a hierarchy or a column of data that contains a value for each row you want the scorecard to display.

For our example, go to the Explore window, locate and expand the Adventure Works cube. Drag the Product level under the Product hierarchy and drop it onto the row grouping area (Drag a column or hierarchy here...). This will cause the body region we are designing to be repeated for each product.

For convenience, a pair of items are automatically added to the scorecard: a data label in the body region, which will display the product name, and a header in the header region.

Tip

When the data label and header elements are added, their position is linked, which means moving the header control will also move the body control.

Click View in the toolbar to see the scorecard with product names displayed in each row.

3.3. Display sales by date

In the Explore window, expand the measures in the Adventure Works cube and drag the Internet Sales Amount measure to the body region. The corresponding data label and header are created automatically.

The Data Analysis Panel for this data label opened automatically, showing that it currently displays the data from the scorecard group itself, e.g., data grouped only by each product. Click Select data separately if you want to create a separate metric set for this visualization that can display data grouped by additional hierarchies, such as by date.

A sparkline is a variation of a line chart meant to indicate just the historical trend while using a small amount of space. The visualization toolbars for scorecards include other visualizations configured for a small space, including Horizontal Plot, Data Bar, and Bullet Graph.

3.4. Display the order count

From the Explore window, drag the Order Count measure to the body region. The corresponding data label and header label are created automatically.